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•Œthe Fable of the Bees:•Š an Investigation of Its Relationship To Lake Forest College Lake Forest College Publications All-College Writing Contest 5-1-1984 “The aF ble of the Bees:” An Investigation of its Relationship to the Development of Economic Thought Dirk Shelley Lake Forest College Follow this and additional works at: http://publications.lakeforest.edu/allcollege_writing_contest Part of the Economic History Commons Recommended Citation Shelley, Dirk, "“The aF ble of the Bees:” An Investigation of its Relationship to the Development of Economic Thought" (1984). All- College Writing Contest. http://publications.lakeforest.edu/allcollege_writing_contest/26 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Lake Forest College Publications. It has been accepted for inclusion in All-College Writing Contest by an authorized administrator of Lake Forest College Publications. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE FABLE OF THE BEES An investigation of its relationship to the development of economic thought by Dirk Shelley Throughout history bees have been considered as hard working, industrious, and productive. Our speech is filled with such phrases as "busy as a bee" and "be a do bee" which show our association of bees with labor. Bees naturally fall into categories of workers and drones which, like humans, comprise the majority of the population. Mandeville uses the story of the bees to convey his ideas and economic theories. By comparing the beehive to the England of his day, Mandeville can lash out at the follies of his countrymen without directly accusing anyone. Bernard de Mandeville in his poem, "The Grumbling Hive," describes a corrupt yet flourishing beehive. He shows how the economic quality of life in the beehive is dependent on the vices and "least desirable qualities" of its inhabitants. In "The Fable of the Bees," Mandeville shows how the prosperity of the rising capitalistic economy of the eighteenth century was also dependent on the crime, corruption, laziness, luxury, and other vices inherent to England in the 1770's. By closely examining Mandeville' s poem we can see how his thoughts were influenced by the mercantilists, bullionists, and physiocrats of his day. In addition, we can see how Mandeville synthesized these ideas to form five major premises which would influence and greatly contribute to the development of the economic theories of Bentham, North, Hume, and ultimately Adam Smith. Traditionally, satirists have been involved in the condemnation of 15 17 vice and the ridicule of human folly. Mandeville, however, not only condemned England for its pride and hypocrisy, he also felt that the current attitudes and beliefs were the principal follies of the time. If the fable would have been written in the traditional way, we would expect the corrupt bees to somehow be punished for their vices. "The Grumbling Hive" however, is a satirical fable and Mandeville doesn't even consider letting the bees pay for their sins. Instead, he divinely bestows honesty upon the hive, and in so doing, destroys the flourishing economy that was balanced on the corruption and laziness of the bees. This concept is diametrically opposed to the idea that· honesty and hard work by the individual will benefit the entire economy. This idea had existed from the beginning of civilization. Mandeville explained later that the satire was written: to expose the unreasonableness of folly of those, that desirous of being an opulent and flourishing people, and wonderfully greedy after all the benefits they can receive as such, are yet always murmuring at and exclaiming against those vices and inconveniences, that from the beginning of the world to this present day, have been inseparable from all Kingdoms and States that were fam' d for strength, riches, and politeness at the same time) His sense of the contradictions in society provides the poem with its central theme of "Private Vices and Public Benefits" and Mandeville with a basis upon which to build his economic theories. Of the characteristics of the hive, luxury and fraud seem the primary vices or weaknesses. These two vices form the basis for Mandeville' s theory of consumption. He feels that luxury and the pride that goes with it is the driving force behind competition and provides a majority of the goods produced in a nation. Mandeville strongly defends his position in favor of luxury by addressing nine out of his twenty-four remarks and a significant portion of the poem to the advantages of luxury. His concept identifies luxury as conforming to the national interests and he also feels that frugality is "an idle dreaming virtue that employs no 18 hands and is therefore very useless in a trading country." (Harth p.21) His theory is a contradition of the popular beliefs and attitudes of his time. In fact, Mandeville uses these popular theories which condemn luxury, as the support for his defense of luxury. The ancient civilizations to the England of his time had always abhorred luxury and wealth because it detracted from the benefit of society. Moral philosophers had continuously attributed the fall of great civilizations to the growth of luxury. (Harth p.21) Even the religious position on luxury had stressed the importance of abstinence and self-denial as a way of becoming more like Christ. Mandeville sees these abstinences as being destructive to society. Sparta and other great Roman cities, he argued, had fallen from the frugality that was supposed to have made those countries great. These countries, while feared in battle, made sacrifices that made their lives devoid of comfort, "but certainly there never was a nation whose greatness was more empty than theirs; the splendor they lived in was inferior to that of a theatre, and the only thing that they could be proud of, was that they enjoyed nothing." (Harth p.254) Mandeville' s contemporaries and the bullionists were strongly opposed to luxury for other more important reasons. They felt that luxury not only corrupted the individual, but did not effectively utilize the country's resources. The reigning theory of the period denounced luxury goods because they encouraged and perpetuated the people's desire for more luxuries. These extravagances, by definition, are not available to everyone, and their scarcity contributes to higher prices for these goods. Most of the luxuries, they argued, were imported, which caused a great deal of money to be exported in order to acquire these conveniences. The mercantilists and bullionists were concerned that the desire for these goods would cause the import of luxuries to increase until the imports of the country were greater than the exports. This negative balance of trade would then decrease the amount of money in the country and ultimately decrease J the wealth of the nation. Mandeville saw these theories as contradictory to what he actually observed. The accumulation of wealth, through rapidly expanding production and commerce, was promoting the growth of luxury. This - - --- 19 diction-the popular denouncement of luxucy and its importance to the economic condition-can be seen in lines 411-416: "T'enjoy the World's Conveniences,/ be famed in War, yet live in Ease/ Without great Vices, is a vain/ Eutopia seated in the Brain./ Fraud, Luxucy and Pride must live/ Whilst we the Benefits receive." (Harth p.76) While Mandeville agrees that this luxury is not really a desirable quality, he feels that it is essential to the well-being of the economy-" J 'Hunger's a dreadful Plague, no doubt,/ Yet who digests or thrives without? ... As Hunger is to make 'em eat./ Bare vertue can't make Nations live/ in Splendour: ... ' " (Harth p.76) Mandeville' s position of luxury as being inevitable and necessary for trade and money circulation is strongly supported by Voltaire and Montesquieu.2 Melon, a French economist-philosopher, also owed Mandevlne a great deal. His ideas concerning luxucy paralled Mandeville quite closely. He agrees that the costs of luxury to the individual are outweighed by the benefits that the country receives. Melon also believed that luxury goods are essential for prosperous free trade, and without it, the circula~ion of money would decline. Melon not only substantiates Mandeville's economic theories but also points out the existing conflict between frugality and the quest for wealth. Mandeville' s theory of luxury and consumption forms the basis for his other theories. His ideas of trade, government regulation and utilitarianism are all related to his theocy of luxucy. The paradox of private vices and public benefits is also dependent on the concept of luxucy. These interdependencies will be seen in the remaining sections of the paper. Mandeville's two theories of free-trade and laissez-faire can be discussed together since they each build upon th·e other. He extends the bullionist' s and mercantilist' s view of foreign trade protectionism, yet feels the internal economics of the countcy should be left to the powers of the open market. Mercantilist trade theocy relied on a favorable balance of trade. Great Britain, they argued, should export more goods than it imports from that same country. By having greater exports than imports the ---~--- 20 other country would have to make up the difference through gold or silver. They thought that gold an_d silver were the best forms of national wealth, and they were willing to give up some freedom of trade in order to maintain this favorable balance. Government regulations to insure net exports first found support from the bullionists. They favored restrictions of luxury goods ("it encouraged a taste for costly delicacies which shunned the simplicity of domestic manufacturers in favor of exotic products from foreign lands.") (Harth p.22) because it could threaten the balance of trade if the demand for foreign goods would continue to increase. The bullionists also wanted the government to regulate the amount of foreign trade dealings in order to keep a favorable balance of trade.
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